


Hi There, Neighbor

by charlesdk



Series: Tumblr Fics [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Werewolves, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 21:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5065378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlesdk/pseuds/charlesdk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles has a mysterious neighbor. His roommates don't care, and maybe he cares too much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hi There, Neighbor

Stiles had this neighbors, alright. He’d never actually seen them with his own two eyes and for the first week he lived across the hall from them, he honestly thought his neighbor was dead. Had it not been for a brown haired woman coming to visit the mysterious neighbor on a late Monday evening, he would have called the landlord to get it checked out.

But Stiles’ neighbor bugged him. It had been bugging him ever since he, Scott and Isaac moved into this apartment. It bugged the other two guys cause he wouldn’t shut up about it.

“Do you think someone even lives there?” Stiles completely ignored the way both Scott and Isaac rolled their eyes as he brought it up once again on a typical morning while they were all getting ready to leave for work.

“I’m positive someone lives there, Stiles,” Isaac said as he opened the fridge. “Who else is getting all those guests coming and going?”

Stiles shrugged, pouring coffee into a cup. “I don’t know. Maybe no one actually lives there, but whoever those people are use it for-”

“For what?” Isaac interrupted, grabbing the mug full of freshly made coffee from Stiles and earning him a strong glare. “Cooking meth?”

Scott sighed and continued to rub his temple, his elbows resting on the cool kitchen counter. “Guys, do we have to talk about our ghost neighbor right now? It’s way too early and I haven’t even gotten any coffee yet.”

Stiles scoffed and Isaac handed Scott his (Stiles’) coffee mug with a complimentary hair ruffle. The subject was dropped, despite Stiles trying to bring it up again, and Isaac was the first to leave for work. They all had their own car but Stiles’ had broken down (again) and he had to get a ride with Scott.

Getting a ride with Isaac was out of the question. They may be roommates but they didn’t get along. At least not without a lot of bitching at each other.

Work was… well, work. Isaac worked in marketing, had gotten a job at a pretty big firm almost straight out of college, the lucky bastard. Scott worked part time at the local vet while he took classes at a medical college an hour from their apartment.

Stiles worked in the IT department at some boring office building with dickheads in suits bossing him around all day. “The internet isn’t working” someone would tell him every single day and that someone was never actually connected to the internet, hadn’t even bothered trying. Stiles hated it.

He had everything he needed to become a detective at the police station. Everything except his dad’s permission and when your dad is the sheriff, that’s kind of important.

His dad was, however, slowly warming up to the idea. Stiles guessed he would put on a badge in a year, maybe two.

When his work day ended at 5 pm, he walked home. Scott wouldn’t be coming home for another few hours and Isaac would probably go out with some of his work buddies. So Stiles didn’t have a choice but to walk home, no matter how long the walk was.

He got in the elevator with a beautiful blonde and a tall, dark man beside her. He also got off on the same floor as them, which was what made him fiddle with the keys to his apartment for a lot longer than he needed to. He just really needed to see his neighbor. Just a glimpse. And this could be his chance.

The woman knocked three times on the door and threw her blonde hair over her shoulder as they waited. They waited for several seconds before the door opened.

And Stiles saw his neighbor for the first time and was floored.

The man that opened the door looked annoyed, annoyed at his two smiling visitors who went inside without even saying hello or anything. Like this was a normal thing to do for them. The man was tall, about Stiles’ size, with broad shoulders and a fit body. His hair was dark and messy, his stubble about the same. His skin was tanned but pale, like he hadn’t seen the sun in days, weeks maybe. His brows were impressive, strong and heavy above his pale, green eyes.

Pale, green eyes that were staring right over at Stiles.

Only then did Stiles realize that he was staring. And his mouth was open. He was gaping the first time he saw his ghost neighbor.

Quickly, he snapped his mouth shut and smiled awkwardly at his neighbor, raising a hand in greeting. All he received in return was a grunt and a door slammed in his face.

The second Scott came home, exhausted and about to fall asleep right there on the couch, Stiles told him all about it.

“He was fucking beautiful, Scott! Like, his face was made to be taken pictures of and plastered everywhere. I would not be surprised if he’s a model. Or a pornstar. Oh my God, do you think he’s a pornstar? I should google him. Wait, I don’t even know his name. Scott, are you even listening?”

Scott grunted, his face buried in one of the pillows on the long couch. “Stiles,” he said as he pulled himself up to sit, his hair a mess and his eyes heavy. “You know I would love to hear about our neighbor and apparently your sudden crush on him-”

“Wait what, who said anything about a crush?”

“-but I’m too tired. Can we do it tomorrow instead, please?”

Scott went to bed after that. Stiles didn’t stop thinking about their neighbor until the next time he saw him.

*

It was nearly a month later when that happened. Stiles had nearly forgotten about him, honestly. Forgotten about the beautiful man living just across the hall from him.

Stiles was just leaving the apartment the same moment the elevator doors slid open and Beautiful Neighbor in 5C (or just 5C, as Stiles had called him for weeks now) stepped out in shorts, a grey tank top and running shoes, earbuds firmly in his ears.

Full of sweat and panting.

And looking like he had just stepped out of one of the many dirty dreams Stiles may or may not have had about him over the past month.

Stiles nearly tripped over nothing when he saw him, several noises that could have been the start of a lot of words coming from him. He didn’t know if it were the noises or the nearly tripping that made 5C stop with his keys in the lock to his apartment door and turn around to give Stiles a very grumpy and judgmental look with those heavy eyebrows and beautiful everything.

Instead of being incredible embarrassed by it, Stiles stood up straight and shot 5C his best smile (and possibly a finger gun with the lame addition of a wink).

“Hey, what’s-” only to have the door to 5C shut in his face, 5C inside and not in the hallway with him anymore, “-up- yeah, that seems about right, okay.”

Stiles nodded to himself and pressed the button to the elevator. He thought about going over to let 5C know how incredibly rude that just was, but he decided against it.

He did need to get grocery shopping done before Isaac and Scott came home after all.

*

Stiles was not camping out close to the door. He was not intensely listening for footsteps in the hallway or the elevator dinging, shut up Isaac. He was not being creepy.

So yeah, maybe he sat on the far end of the couch, the end closest to the door, when he just happened to hear the elevator ding, voices and footsteps. That didn’t mean he was listening for it, not at all.

He did, however, throw the remote to Scott on the other side of the couch and run for the door before whoever came up the elevator disappeared into 5C’s apartment.

“Hey, hey!” he called out as soon as he opened the door and saw two brunettes heading for 5C. When they both turned around, one looking slightly annoyed and the other curious, Stiles smiled at them and stepped closer. “Hi, uh…” He pointed toward 5C. “You going to visit that guy?”

The two women shared a look and then the older of the two nodded. “Yeah, why?”

Stiles shrugged and made a few ~~several~~ flailing hand movements. “No reason, I just- I’ve been living next to him,” he pointed behind himself, at apartment 5D, where Scott was very much visible watching them from the couch, the door wide open, “apartment 5D, hi, for months and I’ve only seen him a couple of times and, y’know, being the son of a cop I get curious. I would have looked him up or something but I don’t even know his name or anything about him, for that matter. So I was just wondering, since you two are visiting him, if you could tell me who the hell I’m living next to?”

“He’s a murderer,” the younger and shorter one of the two said dryly immediately after Stiles stopped talking.

The older elbowed her. “Cora.” Cora just shrugged and rolled her eyes, while the older continued with a smile on her face. “Sorry about her, she’s kidding. Our brother isn’t a murderer.”

Brother, okay, so not girlfriends. And with how the blonde woman who occasionally visited 5C held onto the dark man, he guessed she wasn’t a girlfriend either.

Stiles wasn’t exactly sure why that was a relief.

Or maybe he did. The guy was attractive and Stiles wouldn’t mind getting all up on that.

“He’s…” The brunette seemed like she was trying to find a word for it. “I guess you could say he’s a bit of a recluse.”

“A hermit,” Cora commented from the side with another roll of her eyes.

“Yeah, a bit of a hermit. We and two of his friends have been visiting regularly so he at least gets some human contact and to check if he’s still alive since he tends to get ridiculously into whatever he’s working on and forgets to eat and sleep.”

Stiles could relate. He would always forget to eat, sleep and shower back when school work piled up. “That’s nice of you. Is he an artist?”

Cora snorted. “Yeah right. I’d like to see him try to draw anything other than stick figures.”

“Hey, nothing wrong with stick figures. Stick figures can be art.”

She raised a brow at him, then shook her head. “Whatever. He’s a writer.”

Stiles opened his mouth to say how cool that was, when the door to 5C opened and Hot Writer Neighbor appeared, wearing a loose, grey and short sleeved shirt that had a low enough neck to reveal both collarbones and chest hair (bless the gods) and sweatpants. His hair was a mess, like he hadn’t bothered doing anything with it for days, and his beard was thick, like he hadn’t shaved in days either.

He also happened to look grumpy and was currently looking - glaring - directly at Stiles.

Who was gaping at him.

Again.

Stiles immediately shut his mouth when he realized that - and after Isaac snorted from where he had joined Scott on the couch to watch - and smiled nervously at 5C, raising a hand in a short wave. “Hi. Sorry for keeping your sisters. We were just, y’know, chatting.”

5C stared at him for another second, then looked at his sisters, both of whom looked amused at the two of them. “You gonna come in or not?”

Cora didn’t hesitate to huff and go into 5C’s apartment, while the other woman smiled and raised a hand at Stiles before she went in as well. When both of them were inside, 5C looked back at Stiles.

Stiles swallowed, suddenly feeling very warm and nervous. He had only ever felt this nervous when he was around Lydia Martin. Of course, that was before he befriended her and they became pretty much best friends.

“Soooo,” he tried when 5C did nothing but stare at him. “I’m Stiles. Your neighbor, hi.”

5C looked hesitant for a moment, his eyes still locked onto Stiles and ignoring the two grinning idiots in the apartment behind him. “Derek.”

Stiles smiled widely, feeling the sudden urge to fist pump because yes! he finally got a name. “Well, see you ‘round, Derek.” He took one last look at Derek before he nodded at him, turned around and headed into his apartment.

He heard the door to 5C close seconds after he had closed his own.

“Wow, that was a train wreck.”

“Shut up, Isaac.”

*

Stiles really couldn’t stop thinking about Derek after that.

Derek, his fucking gorgeous and so out of his league neighbor living just across the hall. Derek, who may look incredibly grumpy but had a soft look in his eyes. (Stiles blamed the heavy eyebrows and the intimidatingly good looks on the grumpiness) Derek, who looked like he hadn’t left his apartment for days sometimes and yet, when Stiles decided to get an early start on the day, he would run into a sweaty Derek coming back from a run.

It took two of those kind of passes in the hallway and Stiles awkwardly waving and smiling like an idiot, before Derek nodded back at him instead of giving him one glance and then disappearing into his apartment.

Stiles had fist pumped in the elevator after that.

Progress!

“Do you think I should go over and talk to him?” Stiles asked three weeks after he had met Derek’s sisters.

Isaac sighed and promptly ignored him, eyes fixed on the television instead. Scott, however, shrugged and turned more in Stiles’ direction. “I don’t really know if going over there now is a good idea since it’s pretty late, but yeah. If you wanna get to know him, going over there and talking to him is definitely a start.”

Stiles nodded several times, having not really listened at all since he had already made up his mind. “Yeah, I’m gonna go talk to him. Right now.” He was up and out the door before Scott could stop him, but not before Isaac yelled “good luck!” after him.

He lifted a fist to knock on the door, but then stopped himself. Only for a second, though. He quickly ran a hand through his hair, trying to make himself look somewhat decent and not like he had been on the couch with his roommates for the past three hours. And then he knocked and took a step back.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure if Derek would even answer. He could hear the soft sound of bare feet padding toward to the door a few moments after he had knocked a second time. But the door didn’t open right away.

After ten seconds of standing there awkwardly, knowing Derek was on the other side of the door, Stiles considered just going back to his own apartment and leaving Derek alone. The guy obviously didn’t like being disturbed.

And then the door opened.

Derek looked a bit more cleaned up than he did the last time Stiles saw him. He had trimmed his beard a bit. His hair still looked messy but soft, like he had stepped out of the shower a few hours ago and hadn’t bothered styling it in any way. He was still wearing the same clothes from last time, though, his feet bare.

It was only when Derek’s brows raised that Stiles realized he was not only staring but also gaping. He really needed to stop doing that. “Uh sorry, what?”

Derek gave him an unimpressed look. “I said, what do you want?” He spoke slowly, obviously not pleased.

Stiles’ mind drew a blank. “I want to make out with you everywhere” wasn’t exactly an appropriate response, he guessed. “Uh well, I- I came over here to talk to you.”

“Why?” Derek was getting visibly more annoyed the longer Stiles stood there.

Stiles laughed. Maybe because he was nervous, maybe because he thought Derek was joking. Because why wouldn’t he come over and talk to his gorgeous neighbor? “Because I want to get to know my neighbor.”

Derek raised a brow at him, gave him an evaluating look, then crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

Stiles, stunned that Derek actually agreed without protest, stood silently and gaped at him. But it didn’t exactly take him long to start throwing questions at Derek and Derek answered them. The answers were short but Stiles took what he could get.

They ended up talking for over an hour, only to be interrupted by Scott calling Stiles back in.

Stiles kept knocking on Derek’s door, kept coming over to try and get him to talk to him. And he made progress with the guy. After the fifth time, Derek even let him inside and Stiles saw the inside of the apartment for the first time. Surprisingly clean for a recluse.

After a month, Stiles liked to think they were good enough friends to invite Derek over for movie night and, surprisingly, Derek accepted.

Isaac got along well with Derek almost immediately. Scott took a bit more time to warm up, but that was just Scott being over protective of his best friend, bless him.

Stiles ended up falling asleep on Derek’s shoulder sometime around midnight. According to both Scott and Isaac, he even cuddled up to the guy and Derek didn’t seem to mind it.

He had had a long and tiring day at work and he would forever blame it on that.

It totally wasn’t because Derek was super comfortable.

(It totally was.)

*

Stiles woke up to the sound of his alarm blaring at 6 AM, a few weeks later. His body felt heavy and he really didn’t feel like getting out of his comfortable bed. He wanted to roll over on the other side and continue sleeping.

But he also didn’t want to get fired, so he pushed himself up and got out of bed, his hair a complete mess as he headed for the kitchen.

By 7 AM, he was rushing out of the apartment and if the coffee hadn’t woken him up properly, he wouldn’t have been paying attention and he would have run straight into a very sweaty and panting Derek coming out of the elevator.

“Morning, Derek,” he greeted when Derek removed one earbud. Stiles recognized the music and very much approved. “Out for a morning run?” The elevator doors closed and he didn’t press the button. Not yet. Not if he could have just a few minutes with Derek.

Derek nodded and swallowed, removing the other earbud as well. “Yeah, just a quick run.” He gave Stiles a quick up-and-down look. “You going to work this early?”

Stiles shrugged and heaved a heavy sigh. “Yeah, I’ve got a lot of work so I thought I’d better get an early start.”

Derek hummed, nodded and leaned against the door to 5C. “And I thought you wanted to quit. Why put so much effort into a job you don’t even want?”

Stiles gave him a look. “Because I need the money and when I do something, I do it 100%. I don’t half-ass stuff, buddy.”

“Good to know.” Derek said it so low that Stiles nearly missed it. He also nearly missed the way Derek was looking at him. A soft smile resting on his lips and he was looking at him like he was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Had it not been for Stiles’ awesome detective skills, he would have missed it. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, that someone like Derek could maybe like him back, but he didn’t want to think like that.

Stiles felt his heart hammering in his chest and his face heat up with Derek looking at him like that. Slowly, he stepped closer to Derek, their eye contact never breaking.

Which was, of course, when Derek, the idiot he was, decided to ruin it all. “Weren’t you going to work?”

Stiles stared at him. Or more like gaped, shocked. He made several flailing movements in Derek’s general direction and several noises that could have been words had he put more effort into it, which apparently made Derek laugh and Stiles was stunned, going right back to gaping.

Derek laughing was rare but beautiful and wonderful and Stiles wanted to hear it all the time.

“Stiles! Get to work, you idiot.”

It took another two minutes before Stiles even got in the elevator. He would so rather spend his day with Derek and he told him that. Derek just rolled his eyes and pushed him into the elevator, making a promise that he would stop by later that day.

Stiles could live with that.

*

Stiles powered through the horrible work day by the thought of hanging out with Derek when he got home. It was dangerous though, thinking about Derek. He nearly fell asleep at his desk thinking about using Derek’s warm body as a pillow again and thinking about the feeling of Derek’s fingers running through his hair.

Of course, Derek thought Stiles had been in a deep sleep when he did that. If he knew Stiles knew about that, Stiles would have never experienced that again. And he couldn’t risk that, so he didn’t bring it up.

Not even to see the tip of Derek’s ears turn pink with embarrassment, no matter how adorable it was.

When Stiles exited the elevator on his floor, he glanced over at 5C and thought about going over there. It was only just after 6 PM and Derek was probably busy writing and forgetting all about dinner, so he decided against it.

After several minutes walking back and forth in the hallway, that was.

Stiles was in his room, door wide open and no music playing, a couple hours later when there was a knock on the door. Immediately, he kicked his desk chair back and ran toward the door before Scott or Isaac could get to it.

“Derek!” Stiles smiled widely when he opened the door and saw his beautiful neighbor standing there, looking clean after a shower and a lot less pale like he had been the first time Stiles had seen him. “Hi.”

Derek stared at him, then huffed a laugh. “Did you run to the door?”

“What?” Stiles scoffed. “Nah, definitely not. Nope, shut up.”

Derek rolled his eyes at him and shifted where he stood, suddenly looking nervous as he swallowed. “I actually… I actually came over here to ask you something.”

“Did you come over here to borrow sugar and eggs? Cause that’s a cheesy move, Derek. Be more creative.”

Derek gave him a look. “No, you idiot. I wanted to ask you, if you…” And then he stopped, words caught in his throat. He sighed and lowered his head, his ears slowly turning pink.

Stiles wanted to grab his face and kiss him right then and there.

This was it. Derek was finally going to ask him out and Stiles would say yes and they would have an awesome date and they would live happily ever after. His heart was pounding in his chest, his eyes wide and very focused on the man in front of him. All his focus was on Derek and not on Scott and Isaac not subtly watching from inside apartment 5D.

But then Derek groaned, grumbled “forget it” and turned to walk away, shaking his head. Stiles only spend a split second standing confused, before he reached out to grab Derek’s arm and stop him. “No no, continue. Finish that sentence, Derek. Ask me.”

Derek turned to face him and took in a deep breath, before he lifted his gaze to Stiles’ excited face. “I wanted to ask you, if you wanted to go out with me? On a date. Sometime, maybe.”

Stiles didn’t hesitate. He didn’t hesitate to say yes before he threw himself at Derek and kissed him.

Realizing what he was doing, he quickly pulled back and looked at Derek with wide eyes. “Oh my God, I’m sorry, was that just way too eager?”

There came a loud “Yes!” from inside (thank you, Isaac and Scott) but Derek laughed and shook his head. “Not at all,” he said and leaned in for another kiss, arms wrapping around his waist.

Stiles could get used to that.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my [tumblr](http://hoechlbutt.tumblr.com/), come say hi!


End file.
